Sister Madsen loves dogs and is a memeber of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has been called to serve as a missionary in the Illinois Chicago West Mission

Thursday, December 22, 2016

she hath done what she could December 12, 2016

Mark 14:8snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snow snowmucho snowI LOVE IT.and we only slightly crashed once so all is good in this hood. SisterCorbett is a fantastico driver.The highlight of this week was definitely the ward Christmas party.The Duede's brought their neighbors who just moved in across thestreet and they are so cute!! It is this mom and she has 6 kids whichwould be so great for this ward. It was exciting to be able to talkwith them, we invited them to the Christmas service at church andhopefully the Duede's invite them over soon and we can all sit downand talk about the gospel.This week for part of our additional study time Sister Corbett and Iwatched part of the missionary broadcast that was given earlier thisyear. Many different General Authorities spoke on different subjectsand Elder Bednar talked about our roles as missionaries and the roleof the Holy Ghost in our Heavenly Father's work, and I realizedsomething very comforting. Which is that I give myself way to muchcredit. Most of our investigators aren't progressing anymore, and Ihaven't been able to figure out why that is and what I am doing wrongor saying or not saying that isn't making them progress. And themessage that I have gotten over and over this week is something thatis best summed up into what Judy said to me. You can lead a horse towater but you can't force it to drink. which.. obviously.. But I havebeen feeling like with enough faith or enough boldness I can get thesepeople to progress but I can't. bc agency. which.. I know this.. butit didn't register in my brain. And it isn't my job to make themprogress or keep commitments or come to church, and this is what I amgetting at. As missionaries we aren't the ones that convert thesepeople, it's the spirit. The Holy Ghost is what motivates people tochange. I do pretty much nothing. I state the facts and I give mytestimony about the facts which brings the spirit into the lessonwhich then testifies of my testimony of the facts and brings thosefeelings to their hearts and then they feel them. and then we invitethem to do things with these facts. and then they choose what to dowith everything that has just happened.. and that's it. I'm not walkingaround trying to find ways the holy ghost can help me. I need tofigure out how I should be helping the Holy Ghost. Because I knownothing about anything about these people or what they go through orwhere they have been. But God does. So if we don't have the spirit welike.. can't teach. Which I feel like everyone says all the time, butits for real people. You physically can, but like why.. Its just goingto be words that sound nice but don't mean anything if you don't havethe spirit with you. So why would you. All we can do is 1 be worthy ofthe spirit and bring it everywhere with us. and then testify of thetruth and allow the spirit to testify of our testimony. Which willbring the truth to the hearts of these people who then have to chooseto accept it and allow it into their hearts. So how do we open theirhearts? I have no idea that is for another email in another life time,There is only so much time in a Monday people. In Jesus the Christ ittalks about this obscure parable that I have never heard of but is thegreatest of all time in Mark 4:26-29 and it talks about a Sower whoplants some seeds and goes on his way and then later they grow and heharvests them and it doesn't really sound like much. But the way JamesE Talmage describes it is awesome. The Sower is the preacher of theword of God (for example, a missionary) he plants the seed of thegospel in the hearts of others, and doesn't know what will happen. Hecan do many things to ensure a good growth, he can water the seed,remove weeds, protect it. But only God is able to ensure it's growth.We provide the best circumstance and then leave the rest to God. Whichis very liberating to me and stress relieving. That my part in thiswork is oh so small and I am only asked to do what I can and leave therest to Someone who knows a lot better.

Sister MadsenFreeport is a Ward full of families and relatives. Who aredistinguished by if they are apart of the older or younger generation.These are some of our Ward missionaries who I love, the olderJeffrey's.

For FHE we decorated a members tree!

And we are helping this Freeport Ward get up to speed with thetimes. One selfie at a time